It is generally known to initially extrude a plurality of restiform filaments from a thermoplastic melt during the production of crimped synthetic threads. The filament bundle is combined after cooling to form a smooth multifilament thread. In order to produce crimping in the individual filament strands, the multifilament thread is compressed into a thread plug. For this purpose, the filaments of the thread are preferably conveyed through a hot fluid, and deformed into loops and arcs at the surface of the thread plug. In order to fix the crimping forming in the filaments, the thread plug is thermally treated. In the case where the thread plug formation occurs by hot fluid, the thread plug heated in this manner is subsequently cooled. For this purpose the thread plug is guided at the circumference of a processing drum. The processing drum is driven in a rotating manner so that the dwell time for cooling the thread plug is determined substantially by both the circumferential speed of the processing drum, and by the degree of the wraparounds of the thread plug at the circumference of the processing drum. Since the circumferential speed of the processing drum is determined by processing speeds and can be modified only to a limited degree, the intensive cooling may be achieved only by respective wraparounds of the thread plug at the processing drum.
A method and a device are known from DE 38 00 773 C2, which discloses that the thread plug is guided in multiple wraparounds at the circumference of the processing drum. For this purpose the wraparounds of the thread plug are guided in a direct side-by-side manner at the circumference of the processing drum, such that reciprocal influences of the individual filaments of the thread plug are inevitable.